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Copyright protects original material from being copied, which is essential if you want to commercialise your creations or defend them against infringement. We help businesses protect and enforce their copyright. Our copyright lawyers can also help if you have been accused of copying or sharing work that belongs to someone else.
Unlike a patent or a trademark, you cannot register copyright in the UK. Rather, copyright protection will arise automatically as soon as your work is created. Copyright protection generally expires 70 years after the death of the creator, although shorter periods apply to certain broadcast work.
Copyright laws protect work that is original (does not replicate or imitate someone else’s work) and tangible (exists in physical form and is not merely an idea). Works subject to copyright typically include:
Copyright protection allows you to control the use that others can make of the work. This means that using the work without the owner’s permission can amount to copyright infringement, which is a civil offence. Video games, music and software are common objects of piracy, which can also amount to a criminal offence if certain conditions are met.
Since there is no register of protected works, it can be very difficult for someone to know if a work is subject to copyright. However, the law helps the copyright owner by presuming that the work has been copied if two similar versions exist. The burden will be on the defendant to show that their work is original.
If in doubt, the safest option is to assume that a work is protected and not copy it without permission.
As a full-service Intellectual Property team, our copyright lawyers can help you:
In the UK, infringement cases can be especially challenging. We have a strong record of success in this complex area, bringing a large amount of commercial experience to the table. Our copyright lawyers can help you commercialise your copyright, while shutting down problems before they cost you serious money.
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Senior Associate
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Partner - Head of IP & Data Protection
Talk to Patrick about Intellectual property disputes & Data protection & Digital & Intellectual property
Copyright protects original material from being copied, which is essential if you want to commercialise your creations or defend them against infringement. We help businesses protect and enforce their copyright. Our copyright lawyers can also help if you have been accused of copying or sharing work that belongs to someone else.
Unlike a patent or a trademark, you cannot register copyright in the UK. Rather, copyright protection will arise automatically as soon as your work is created. Copyright protection generally expires 70 years after the death of the creator, although shorter periods apply to certain broadcast work.
Copyright laws protect work that is original (does not replicate or imitate someone else’s work) and tangible (exists in physical form and is not merely an idea). Works subject to copyright typically include:
Copyright protection allows you to control the use that others can make of the work. This means that using the work without the owner’s permission can amount to copyright infringement, which is a civil offence. Video games, music and software are common objects of piracy, which can also amount to a criminal offence if certain conditions are met.
Since there is no register of protected works, it can be very difficult for someone to know if a work is subject to copyright. However, the law helps the copyright owner by presuming that the work has been copied if two similar versions exist. The burden will be on the defendant to show that their work is original.
If in doubt, the safest option is to assume that a work is protected and not copy it without permission.
As a full-service Intellectual Property team, our copyright lawyers can help you:
In the UK, infringement cases can be especially challenging. We have a strong record of success in this complex area, bringing a large amount of commercial experience to the table. Our copyright lawyers can help you commercialise your copyright, while shutting down problems before they cost you serious money.
Want to connect? Select someone below to view their profile.
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© 2023 Collyer Bristow LLP
Sharon Fryer, Head of Commercial Services
CB Comply: Data protection training
Collyer Bristow offers live, interactive, engaging and practical training sessions on a variety of privacy-related topics.
CB Checkpoint: Optimising your key business documentation, policies & procedures.
There are a number of key policies, procedures and documents your business should keep up to date, to be both legally protected and in preparation for investment or exit.
Collyer Bristow’s ‘CB Checkpoint’ team will give your business a full check-over, reviewing your key documentation and advising on any changes that are suggested or required. We will deliver a full report of our findings and offer support, should you need it, to ensure legal protection for your business, its assets, and ultimately its reputation.
CB Comply: Data protection training
Collyer Bristow’s Data Privacy team offers live, interactive, engaging and practical training sessions on a variety of privacy-related topics.
Robin Henry, Head of Dispute Resolution
Navigating your Business through conflict.
We work with clients across a vast range of industries supporting them through the full range of disputes. We provide dynamic and tailored strategies to get them back on track and focused on the day-to-day activities required for success.
Peter Daniel, Head of Private Wealth
Support for the day to day, support for the complex.
Tailored support for wealth individuals and families.
CB Clarity: Pre and post nuptial agreement services
The purpose of a nuptial agreement is to agree a fair financial settlement between a couple in the event they get divorced/the civil partnership is dissolved, and it seeks to protect any pre- acquired assets such as inheritance, businesses or property and also seeks to deal with any future inheritance. Put simply, pre and post- nuptial agreements help to provide security, clarity and certainty in the future, for both parties.
CB Entrust: The personalised will writing service from Collyer Bristow
CB Entrust is not an off the shelf will such as those available on the high street, but a fixed price expert approach to writing one of the most significant documents of your life.
Michael Grace, Head of Real Estate
Support across all your real estate requirements.
We work with property owners, investors, developers, funders and both landlords and tenants on the financing, growth, management and disposal of their property and portfolios.
Helping those in the financial sector respond rapidly to market changes.
Our multi-disciplinary team provides a seamless service to businesses and individuals operating in the financial sector. Our work ranges from corporate finance, lending, and restructuring, to funding, regulation, high-value banking litigation and complex claims against financial institutions.
lifetime gifting
A lifetime gift is any gift that you make, without strings, during your lifetime.
In the UK, there are strict rules around gifting to stop people from avoiding IHT by giving away their possessions as gifts before they die.
The digitalisation of our everyday lives
All of us have at least part of our lives online and in digital assets such as emails, social media profiles, cryptocurrency and online bank accounts, to name just a few. The law recognises that digital assets can be owned. However, there is no consistency between assets and you may find that some of your most valuable assets are mere licences to use a third-party provider’s service. This has significant consequences when attempting to access, manage and transfer digital assets after death.
Flexible working is the future of the workplace.
As well as the obvious benefits to both employers and employees of continuing to combine working from home with going into the office and more flexible hours, there are employment law and other legal implications that employers will need to consider. Each organisation’s requirements will be slightly different.
Supporting businesses in digital transformation.
The metaverse. Artificial intelligence. E-sports. Cryptocurrency. Traditional business models and industries have either been or are being disrupted by digital innovation, paving the way for new opportunities and changing “the way that things are done.”
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